He is really not so well known as he should be, for in those tangled beginnings of our country we can hardly overestimate the importance of any one determined or strategic move, and it is due to Amherst, very largely, that half of the State of New York was not made a part of Canada.

Incidentally, Amherst College is named for him.
The worthy Commissary died, it is believed, at about the time that trouble started.

On April 13th, in the memorable year 1776, General Washington made "the Hill" his headquarters, and the house built by the British army official was the scene of some of the most stirring conferences that marked the beginning of the Revolution.
At the vitally important officers' councils held behind those tall, white columns, there was one man so unusual, so brilliant, so incomprehensible, that a certain baffling interest if not actual romance attaches itself automatically to the bare utterance or inscription of his name,--Aaron Burr.

He was aide-de-camp to General Putnam, and already had a vivid record behind him.

It was during Washington's occupancy of Richmond Hill that Burr grew to love the place which was later to be his own home.
I confess to a very definite weakness for Aaron Burr.